Beneficial Ownership of Foreign Companies

Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

Estimated Completion, April 2018

The UK is offering safe haven to corrupt individuals, their associates and assets, allowing non-UK companies to anonymously purchase property and participate in public contracting. Evidence suggests that the majority of grand corruption cases involve shell companies as the vehicle of choice for laundering illicit wealth. For this reason, introducing transparency around beneficial ownership of foreign companies will be vital to fight corruption and the multitude of negative impacts it brings at home and abroad. The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy opened a consultation seeking views on the beneficial ownership register on 5 April 2017.

overseas companies beneficial ownership register

May 8, 2017

THE PROBLEM

There’s evidence that the UK property market has become a safe haven for corrupt money stolen from around the world, facilitated by the laws which allow UK property to be owned by secret offshore companies.

We’re not talking about just one or two secret homes. Transparency International UK research shows that 36,342 London properties are owned by companies registered in offshore havens. Not even the Land Registry knows who owns these homes.

Over 75% of properties under investigation for corruption in a recent ten year period used offshore corporate secrecy, demonstrating that this is a clear vehicle for money laundering.

This commitment was also reiterated in the UK’s Open Government Partnership 2016 – 2018 National Action Plan, and legislation is scheduled to be passed on the register by April 2018.

WHAT HAS HAPPENED SINCE?

The UK opened a call for evidence on a beneficial ownership register to increase the transparency of overseas investment in property and public contracts in April 2017. As Robert Barrington, TI-UK Executive Director, said: